No Time At All
by Stephensmat
Summary: After the timeline returned to normal, both River and the Doctor had their Wedding Day together. Just not at the same time, and not in the same order. Time Lords of all know how long love can last. Spoilers up to and including the season 6 finale.
1. Chapter 1

**NO TIME AT ALL**

* * *

******April 23rd, 2011**

Rory had been right to wonder if he had a room of his own. He rarely slept. It wasn't just his personality. A Time Lord needed less sleep than a human.

But any veteran could tell you the value of rest, mental if not physical. That was why he hadn't gone back for them right away. He needed to sort things out. A Time Lord had a symbiotic love happening with any clock, and for an eternity of two seconds, none of them were ticking. Is brain had been stretched out in every direction, and squished down into a second at the same time.

He didn't sleep well, and he didn't need long. He rarely came to this room. The TARDIS could make it appear and disappear as needed, and he never took much interest in it. Sometimes he had an exact recreation of Reinette's chambers, sometimes a Zero-G mattress that left him snoozing on air; sometimes a bunk bed. He could amuse himself, flipping a coin to see which one he took.

He couldn't sleep. He didn't care. He needed to rest. It was impossible to keep his mind still, so he focused it on one topic.

Naturally, it would be her.

Guilt about Rose had long since faded. She was happy. She was with him. And no matter what his connection to her (Or him) was, she was in love with another man. Even if she was still in this Universe, the Human-Ten would have been another man.

Every now and then the irony of it made him laugh. After all the grief Rose's mother had given him, he went and started running around the galaxy with his In-Laws.

The door to his room opened. "Hi. I brought you a present." She shrugged off her wrap, woven from translucent multicolored fabrics. "You can use it as a wall hanging too. I used it as a disguise once. Yesterday. Be careful who sees you with it."

He didn't even open his eyes. "We're in the Vortex. How did you even get on board?"

"Idris gave me the key to the back door, in a manner of speaking." River drawled.

"Idris?"

"Us girls gotta stick together." River said lightly. "She likes me more than you anyway. You _push_ the doors open." She looked around. "The décor... I don't remember it like this. Well, I remember the hammock..."

"You would." The Doctor put in.

River didn't bother to respond. "...still fairly early days on your end then. Where are you?"

"After Lake Silencio." The Time Lord said.

"Oh good, then I can do this and not make your head explode." River was suddenly more like herself than ever as she calmly stretched out on top of him and put a soft kiss on his nose. He smiled a little and she slid over a little, curling up next to him. The hammock swayed under them. "So. We have our 'official' honeymoon yet?"

That made the Doctor open one eye. "If I said yes..."

"I wouldn't believe you." She teased. "You're just fishing for spoilers."

"Yes I am." The Doctor agreed shamelessly. "I sometimes try to picture you and me stretched out on a beach with nothing to do. The picture always ends with Daleks charging us from up out of the surf."

River grinned. "Our second anniversary." She whispered and planted another kiss, this one on his lips. It was a clear invitation for more, but he didn't respond as she expected, and she drew back a little to study him. "So, if we haven't left Stormcage for our honeymoon, and you just left the Lake, then your brain must be buzzing."

"Yeah." The Doctor didn't bother to seem surprised. She was part Time Lord, she must have responded to broken time the same way he did. "How long did your headache last?"

"Same as yours. Until eternity stopped and the clock moved forward another second." She raised herself up on an elbow. "Are we okay?"

The Doctor was silent a moment. "Yeah. Why wouldn't we be?"

"Well... It was a hell of a shotgun wedding." She admitted.

Silence. River turned her head to look up at him. She leaned in closer, putting her lips to his ear; and she whispered his name. His real name. The long version of it. The complete text. And then she turned over so that she could rest her folded arms on his chest and rest her chin on her arms, looking up at his face. "I love you." She said simply. "I _know_ you love me. I'm just not sure if you're there _yet_. I never knew if... if that came before or after the wedding. Or the honeymoon. Or the..." She stopped herself. "Sorry. Spoilers."

"You don't want me to ask, quit _teasing_ them." The Doctor told her. "But yeah. We're okay."

She smiled cheekily. "How okay?" She teased. "Because there's something else we haven't done yet too... Husband."

He was expecting her to pounce, but instead, she went running to the Control room.

* * *

**25th June, 2010**

The TARDIS landed, and The Doctor opened the door, amazed to find themselves on Amy Pond's front doorstep. It was dark, the House was empty, and he peeked over the fence as River calmly pulled out a Sonic Screwdriver to let them in. He could still see the imprint on the grass of where he'd landed the first time. "When are we?"

"The day you took my mom for a... 'last hurrah', before the wedding."

The Doctor almost made the joke, but managed to restrain himself. "I cannot believe we're doing this now." He murmured.

River smiled saucily and led them into the kitchen. "You get the fish fingers, I'll get the custard."

An amazing smile bloomed on his face. "How did you know?"

* * *

Getting the food ready took several minutes. In that time they chatted about meaningless things. After a while, River went upstairs, and came back down with Amy's Wedding Gown, holding it up over herself. "What do you think?"

The Doctor was studying the oven with disturbing intensity. "I think many things."

"Hey come on! Make a fuss about your bride!"

The Doctor looked. And then turned back to the oven. And then looked at her again, slightly longer. And then looked back at the oven. "You look... nice." He said finally.

River smiled, victorious. "And the penny drops."

"Go put that back. I have a history with that dress. The first thing Amy showed me was that dress when we got back. The conversation was... brief."

River chortled. "Yeah, she told me about that."

"She tells her own daughter that stuff? Jeez, now I know where you get it."

"She didn't know I was her daughter then. She was still making jokes about how you 'soniced me'." River joshed. "I'll go put this back. How long till they're ready?"

"Another two hundred forty seven seconds." The Doctor calculated.

* * *

The Doctor was waiting impatiently, and River was leaning against him, head on his shoulder, still telling stories about growing up as Mels. "When I was about sixteen, Amy told me to get a boyfriend. Rory was always following us around like a puppy, and he was the first guy she saw as we had the conversation. I of course, said no, and so did Rory because he was in love. Amy was convinced there was another reason. She thought he was gay till they were both nineteen."

The Doctor laughed. "Now, Fish Fingers are ready, how many do you want?"

"You sure you haven't taken them out too soon? We were talking, you might have been distracted..."

The Doctor spun around and got right in her face. "Are _you_ telling _me_ that I've lost track of _Time_?"

River chuckled and held up the measuring cup full of custard between them. "Try me."

The Doctor took one fish finger right off the tray, dipped it without breaking eye-contact with River, and took a bite. Their eyes stayed glued to each other for a whole half second before he turned and ran for a sink he could spit it into. "GAWEH! Yucky! Yucky!"

River tossed her frizzy hair back and forth, laughing as he spat several times, thrashing around like a five year old kid.

He straightened. "Ulgh. Never do that again. I was regenerating at the time. My tongue was still cooking. Must have thrown my taste-buds out before they settled again. Why didn't you warn me?" He said it with her, almost before she could. "Spoilers."

"There there." River teased him. "I'll make it up to you. I started a pot of Chul brewing before we landed..."

The Doctor wiped his mouth. "Chul?" He repeated. "You've been to Kinsgard?"

"Once."

"I thought that place-"

"Like I said, once." River beamed. "How long has it been since you've had a cup of hot Chul?"

"Brew it up, and give it to me now, or I'll be forced to hurt you." The Doctor said, most seriously.

"Never scared me before."

"Do you _ever_ think about anything else?"

"Well if you're gonna keep pitching me softballs like that..." River drawled. "Clean this up. I'm going back to the TARDIS to conjure you up something like a real bed."

* * *

There are places in the galaxy where a properly prepared cup of Chul was worth half a planet. There were times where a Chul Brewing tournament was like the Olympics, and every contestant was under armed guard at all times, for fear of the book makers trying to kill off a favorite before the odds were called.

And then Kinsguard had been nibbled away to nothingness by the Rabid Kittens of the Tabula Hatchery, and there was no more Chul. Another victim of the War That Never Was. Nobody was quite sure how many people took their own lives in grief over the loss of that wonderful brew, but it must have been in the millions.

The Artisans of The Great Third Western Starscape had woven their sonnets to the drink in nebulae across the stars, and the sonnets sang of the perfectly made brew. It was said to be best enjoyed while lying prone on a bed stuffed with shark feathers, and resting your head on the thighs of your soul-mate, while they poured slow soft sips into your mouth from cup carved from the diamonds formed in the Massive Asteroids of the Galactic Core.

River had apparently read that one too.

By the time he made it back to his room, she was ready for him; sitting against the headboard a a bed big enough for eleven people, with the pot beside her on a small zero-gravity burner, keeping it warm. She had changed into her full Cleopatra outfit, minus the wig and make-up.

He was about to make a cunning remark, when the scent of the Chul hit him like a teasing ghost from an ancient past that should never have ended, and he couldn't help himself. "You and that stuff put together should be illegal." He breathed.

"It is." River smiled cheekily as he lay back on the bed, resting in her lap. "The Shadow Proclamation has a small footnote written in Ancient Tennan, saying that I'm not allowed back in that system till their local star explodes. I've thought about speeding that process up so I can go back for another bagful, but I know how cross you can get." She poured a small cupful, barely an ounce. The cup glittered like a diamond. "Lean back sweetie."

He did so, and she brought the cup to his lips with one hand. A large droplet fell into his mouth from her sure touch. It was not unlike suddenly becoming weightless. Her scent and that of the drink merged till he was feeling nothing but peace.

Another droplet, and The Doctor could feel a millennium of stresses float away as she stroked his hair.

"Kovarian came back to see me you know." River murmured, and the sound of her voice was like a warm shaft of sunlight coming out of a slow lazy darkness, wrapping itself around him till he didn't need his ears to listen. "She remembered the alternate timeline. My first day in Stormcage, she was waiting outside my cell. She was crowing. I went and fell in love with you, and as far as she knows, she still got her way. You even begged for it to happen. I should win an award for the tears I shed for her. That night, the TARDIS appeared in the middle of my cell, and we went swimming in the Venosian Solar Flares. It was the best night of my life." Another droplet. "Well... till the next time."

Another droplet, this one passed from her lips to his. This kiss was not an invitation, it was the deceleration of an approaching fact on the timeline, and he couldn't think of a reason to try and change it.

* * *

The Chul had cooled significantly by the time they got back to it. It only had its potency while hot, but still tasted good served chilled. They rested for a while, sipping their drinks; feeling pleasantly smashed.

"I know I've said before, but your room... It's a bit spartan." She said, as he served her a droplet.

"Needs a woman's touch?" The Doctor quipped back. "I never put any effort into it. I don't really sleep."

"Nightmares?" She guessed.

"Yeah."

"Me too. Guess we needed to wear each other out enough to actually sleep."

"Well, before you came along I was doing fine hitting myself over the head with a frypan thank you, and when did you call my room Spartan anyway?"

"Spoilers."

"Believe me River, after the last hour or two, there ain't _nothing_ you can say that'll take me by surprise anymore." He flirted and she laughed.

For a time, they were silent, sipping the invaluable elixir.

"I remember my first time with you." River murmured warmly. "You knew _everything_ I liked. Things _I_ didn't even know. You _knew_ me. After the honeymoon, you were so shy suddenly. Took me a while to figure out why you weren't as sure."

"Disappointed?"

"Never. Either I surprise you, or you surprise me. Either way, it's so... us." River hummed. "You're an impossible act to follow, even for you."

"For either of us." The Doctor countered. "There's nobody for either of us. Not after each other."

She let out another purr and tilted back flexibly to kiss his chin. "That's nice of you to say sweetie, but 'after' is such a very long time. We're time travelers, my love. We of all people know just how long forever can last. I have one life to live. You have as many as you need."

Beat.

"No." The Doctor responded. "Forever isn't nearly long enough."

"What do you mean?"

"There are ways..." The Doctor said, almost to himself. "Nothing lasts forever. Nobody knows that better than an eternal, or a time traveler. But nothing gets destroyed. Only changed. Change... can be changed again. Changed back. There are ways."

She was studying him, almost pouting a little. "You're far away again." She whispered. "You get that way. I don't know if it's me, or someone else, or Rose, or Jenny, or your family back on Gallifrey, or _anything_, but even after all these years I've never been game to ask."

The Library came back to him then, hit him like a wave. He was silent a moment, remembering how Ten had treated her, reacted to her, while even now he stroked the long curls under his fingers...

...before catching her up in a desperate kiss.

"Well! Hel-_lo_." She responded as they broke for air. "Where did _that_ come from?"

"River, there's nobody for me after you. How could there be? Our lives don't happen in the right order." He spelled it out to her. "And we can't tell each other what the other pieces to the puzzle there are, how they fit together, or even how many pieces there are. If you... If I lost you tomorrow, you could still show up the next day, or six months later, or a thousand years and two regenerations from now. How could there be anyone after you, if I'll never know when you're gone?"

River was stunned, as though it had never occurred to her. "My god... and neither of us could tell when it was the last time we meet, because neither of us can tell the other. If I died tomorrow, you couldn't tell me."

"Or if _I_ do." The Doctor said quickly. "Regeneration isn't a magic wand. You killed me for keeps once, and you're the only reason I lived through it. You couldn't tell me about Lake Silencio. Who knows, maybe you're really The Last of the Time Lords, and I just don't know it yet. I told you that I'll let them think me dead. And I will. If they see me again, they'll just think it's an earlier version of me. One that came before my 'death'."

Long beat.

"And what you are to the galaxy... I am to you." River whispered.

"Or you are to me." The Doctor lied to her gently, giving her a soft smile. "I can show up another billion times before that trick stops working, and the galaxy will still sleep better, knowing I am only mortal."

River kissed him again, this one passionate, trying to make it worthy of forever. "I didn't do you any favors, did I?"

The Doctor gave her one of those looks. A man who could do the things he could do, who had seen the things he had seen, who could make children giggle with a smile one minute, and make stars go cold with a glare the next, and he reserved this look just for her. One that made him look ancient and sad and lonely and full of love and wonder, and clinging to gratitude above all the emotions spinning through him.

"River..." He said finally. "You have no idea."

She almost looked guilty for a moment. "If I had just... let it happen, time wouldn't have fractured, and you never would have married me... never would have shown me... Like I said, I never knew when you felt the way I did."

"'Never' is even longer than 'after', River Song, you naughty thing you." He taunted warmly. "Time can be rewritten. Most of it anyway. And if in the future, you ever wonder exactly when it happened, it was tonight."

* * *

They got up then. As much as they wanted to stay where they were, there were things to do and places to be.

"I have to go." She said finally. "I got offered a job, and if I don't start organizing it soon I'll forget."

The Doctor froze. "You get jobs?"

"I got one for the Byzantium wreck. I got another for... well, you'll see. I got one this week. The Felman Lux Corporation wanted me to put an expedition together. He hasn't told me where yet. He says it's beyond illegal to go wherever it is, and that's why he came to me. He's crazy obsessed about going himself, and keeping it secret, and he's not the type of guy who risks himself; I can't help it, I was intrigued. Who knows, maybe I'll see you there anyway." She pulled her boots on and looked back at him. "You look sad now. Why?"

The Doctor swallowed his first reaction. "Well, you know how I hate to see you leave. But if you were already out of Prison and about to go off on an adventure, why'd you come now?"

"Because I knew we'd have the TARDIS to ourselves for a night." She smiled cheekily. "Wanted to see you before I left. You surprise me often enough, I figured it wouldn't hurt to return the favor once or twice. Plus, I got you a wedding present." She reached over beside the bed. "For you, my love."

It was a weed. About half an inch tall, in a small pot. The Doctor was delighted. "A Chul plant!"

"Last one in this galaxy. Figured you'd be able to take better care of it here than I could in Prison."

"A Chul plant takes over a century to produce enough teeth for a brew." The Doctor took the pot tenderly.

"Well, neither of us are going anywhere." River smiled warmly. "I promise you that, my love."

"Hm. Here. Take this with you." The Doctor reached over the edge of the bed and collected his jacket, giving her a sonic screwdriver.

"What for?"

"Why not?"

She studied it. It was shorter than his, and marbled, with a circular finger trigger/grip on one side. "That's not yours."

"It was. I have a bunch of them, I started playing around with the older versions a while back, added a few settings. Consider it my own wedding present."

"Cheeky." River chuckled. "The Wedding was a long time ago for me."

"A long time ago?" The Doctor waved that off. "That's no time at all."

* * *

**April 22nd, 2011**

The Stormcage Containment Facility was meant to be unbreakable. There was no privacy, no hiding places. It's main security was simplicity. There were no clever blind spots, no air vents, no high-tech equipment to unlock the doors. Just a large open corridor with nowhere to hide, and one wall of your cell was solid bars. Too simple to outsmart.

Taken straight from Lake Silencio by the _Teselecta_, River was marched, guarded by fourteen guards, to her cell. The Humanoid Machine was not the same one that had fooled them at the lake, but it was the same crew. It was posing as one of the guards, making sure she went into her cell

"Melody Pond AKA Doctor River Song." The 'Guard' said as the other guards confirmed the doors were locked, and made their way down the hall. "You will remain here for the term of your natural life." 'He' peeked over his shoulder to make sure the other guards were now out of earshot. "Doctor, you understand what this means, don't you? For this Deception to work, and the Doctor to remain dead, you will have to do the time."

River nodded, not at all concerned. "Some of it anyway."

"_All_ of it, I'm afraid. Your sentence does not offer the possibility for reprieve or parole."

"That's not what I mean." River chuckled.

"We've done what we can to make it comfortable." The _Teselecta_ said. "You'll be allowed phone calls, visitors, furnishings, mail... We've arranged to have a number of the less neighborly members of the prison to be relocated to cells further away. Is there anything else?"

River grinned naughtily. "Can I choose my own guards? And get a few glamor shots to help me choose?"

"No." The Captain told her firmly, and turned to go.

"Oh Captain, my captain." River called after him. "There's a visible two second power drop on cycle rhythm on the western Airlock, there's a noticeable wear on the fifth and seventh keypad buttons showing which ones have been pressed the most often, there's a blind spot between the gun locker and the Medium Security Wing; and there's at least twelve other ways out of here that I saw on my way in. Plug your leaks, would you? There could be dangerous people in here."

The _Teselecta_ frowned at her darkly. "Thank. You." The Captain said bitingly.

River grinned. She had lied to him. There were only seven ways other ways out. She wondered how nuts they would make themselves trying to find five more ways that didn't exist. She looked around her cell and found four more ways out.

"So, this is where they put you."

River felt a cold hand close around her stomach. Madam Kovarian was standing outside her cell. River went to the bars and flashed a hand out. Kovarian was standing about half an inch beyond her reach.

"Temper temper, Child." Kovarian told her cruelly. "Too much of your mother in you."

River snarled. "Why are you here?" She demanded. "Got another good man for me to kill?"

"No. I just wanted to tell you... how grateful I was. And how lucky you are."

River grit her teeth. _He's alive._ She told herself. _He's alive, and she doesn't know that. He's alive._ "Lucky?" She growled.

"How many thousands of billions fell under his wrath? The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontaran, about a thousand others, to say nothing of his own entire race. You not only survived, you won. The Daleks want to throw you a parade."

River lunged again. Kovarian hadn't gotten that magic half inch closer yet. "Bitch!" River snarled.

Kovarian laughed. "I was worried for a while there. You fell in love with him. I never, in a million years would have thought of that. But as it happens, it was the only way. A billion empires couldn't break him, but the love of a woman tore him down. You killed him with that love Melody Pond."

_He's alive._ River told herself desperately, feeling tears form in her eyes despite herself. _He's alive. She doesn't know._

"If we put anyone else in that suit, he would have fought back. But it was you, so he didn't fight back. Because it was you, he delivered himself on a platter, and he _begged_ you to do it."

The tears came then. River sniffed and sank down to the floor. The woman was laughing, almost dancing in place.

Kovarian leaned closer, tauntingly. "It. Was. Too. Good. The Last of the Time Lords, the Destroyer of Worlds, killed with love; and begging for it."

Close enough. River lunged out of her crouch, her hand flashing through the bars to grab Kovarian by the collar, hauling her into the bars for a massive slam to the face. And then another. River released her. "I'll kill you one day. I promise you that! I will send you to hell for making me a killer!"

Kovarian struggled to her feet, gasping for air, one hand over the eye-drive immediately. "Make no mistake Melody. You're a spent shell. A bullet that's already hit the mark. The Doctor is dead. Hate me all you want, but it's over." The relief on her face was obvious. In fact, for a moment, Kovarian almost sobbed with the sheer relief of it. "At long last, it's over. In the final analysis, I won."

Kovarian left her then. The sound of her cackling came down the length of the hallway, echoing off the stone walls.

River wiped her face. "God." She hissed to herself. "Maybe I should try and get myself taken off the 'visitor approved' list."

With that, she turned and took her first good look around the cell. It was three times the length of a regular cell. Long enough to take her own life by charging head-first into the stone walls if she wanted to. This part of the Prison was for those labelled 'End Of The Line'. If the prisoners died in here, nobody would care. in fact, it was a given that they would. Everyone in these cells was here until they died, and nobody much cared how long, or short that would take.

She looked around the cell. _Three walls, fairly bare..._

She lay back on the bed and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Ooh, eight ways." She smiled, and closed her eyes. She hadn't really slept since Lake Silencio.

* * *

She woke up sharply at the familiar sound. The TARDIS was appearing, with the typical majestic lights and sound.

She sat up, thrilled. There in her cell, facing her, was the TARDIS. The door opened, and he poked his face out. "Oh good! I appeared in three other cells before this one. One of them recognized me and flipped right out of his heads. I think I started a riot downstairs." He looked around. "So, this is your room huh? A little Spartan, isn't it?"

"Well, give me some time." River flirted back. "Good to see you."

"Having any trouble with the other prisoners?"

"There was one guy at admissions. He suggested a few things we could do in solitary, but I already had a canasta partner." She teased. "I told him to try it, and I'd set him on fire."

"Ohh, never be specific in your warnings. It's like telegraphing your punches. It gives them a chance to see what you'll do, and avoid it."

River agreed. "How would I roast the marshmallows then?"

"Wait! I brought you a Cell-Warming present!" The Doctor retreated into the TARDIS, and brought out a wrap, woven from translucent multicolored fabrics. "Use it as a wall hanging. Might be useful as a disguise one day too."

River took it and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Nice. Just my style too." She posed for a moment. "Wedding present?" She teased.

"In a manner of speaking. As it happens, I've got some Chul teeth, just ripe enough for a brew, and you know what they say about the best way to enjoy fresh brewed Chul."

River blinked. "Okay..."

The Doctor suddenly gave her his most intimidating '_The-Time-Lord-Is-Talking_' glare. "You mean to imply you've never _had_ hot Chul?"

"Now why would I imply that, when I could just say it outright?" River quipped. "Never heard of the stuff."

"Well then, step right this way." The Doctor invited. "I'll brew you some, and then I know this great place to take a swim. Interested?"

River grinned and nearly went running into the TARDIS, and his waiting arms.

* * *

**AN**: The _Doctor has an interesting problem with his love interest. She died the day they met, and then he went and fell in love with her. If she left for the library in the season premiere, she could still star in a thousand episodes, across a dozen regenerations. She'll never out of his life truly, because she might be in the next episode. A tragic, inescapable, wonderful, bittersweet romance that could only happen on Doctor Who. _

_Read and Review_


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN**: I suppose you could see this as a separate story. And it is, really, but it touches on the same theme. Their lives don't happen in the right order, so what happens to them seems entirely different, depending on which of the two you follow._

* * *

If you wanted a hot and sunny beach to yourself, you had to find a planet that had no people on it. Two moons in the sky reflected the sunlight all night round, making the darkest point in the middle of the night still a twilight, and the dragonets liked to sun themselves on mountainsides at this time of year.

It was easy to think that you were the only person in existence. He checked the time again and waited, reflecting on how many times he'd been alone during moments like this.

There was shimmering feel to the air behind him, and he turned. The air seemed to ripple for a moment, and then a glow formed. The light grew strong and sharp for a moment, and then suddenly erupted in light and noise. An oval of pure light in the twilight of a lonely beach. From the light came bursts of staccato laser fire, blasting through the circle, and fusing the sand it hit into instant glass. The Doctor ducked instinctively.

"YAAAAAH!" Screaming like a banshee, River Song emerged, barefoot and wearing nothing but a two piece bathing suit, shooting back the way she came without looking. More laser fire chased her.

The circle of light closed behind her instantly, leaving them alone on the beach.

River peeked up from the sand and saw him. "Hello Sweetie."

"I could have picked you up, y'know?" The Doctor pulled her upright. "You didn't need to use a Voret Energy Door."

"I needed a new bathing suit." River said, as though that explained everything, frizzing out her hair.

River Song. There were so many questions about Lake Silencio. Was she to be the woman who murdered him? Or the one who married him? He had not intention of marrying this woman who had him so flummoxed, but she would not tolerate being the one who took his life. He'd made it clear to the galaxy that she was the woman who murdered him, and then made it clear to her in particular that she was the one who married him. In reality, she was both. Technically, she was neither, with him alive and the timeline that held their wedding being a 'neverwas'...

As a wedding present, he had given her forgiveness, and she had given him back the universe.

It was a match that could only happen to the two of them, and after four centuries, he had to admit it was the best crazy mistake he'd ever repeated the first time..

* * *

"I thought you hated wine." River commented as she sipped.

"I do, but what's the point of being a time traveler if you can't bring a good vintage?" He shot back. "Besides, you have to use wine to toast."

"What are we toasting?"

"Spoilers." He threw her favorite line back at her.

"Then what's the point?"

"Some things have to be celebrated."

"Amen to that. Where are we by the way? I don't recognize the co-ordinates."

"Zookil." The Doctor responded. "Before the Migration arrived."

"I didn't know Zookil was a colony world." River was surprised.

"Mm. It will be in about... nine seconds."

River grinned around her wineglass and stretched out next to him. The glow of twin moons was bright enough to feel like a sunset, but the stars were visible...

A moment later, a fire-trail lit the sky. It wasn't a shooting star. Then another came. And another. Then a much larger one.

"There they are. The first scout ships, setting up the landing zone." The Doctor said. "Another ten minutes, and there'll be dozens, hundreds of landing ships coming down, lighting up the sky. A fireworks show that nobody ever saw but us."

The trails of the landing craft were in perfect patterns, perfect sequence. "Beautiful." She approved.

They sat quietly, watching the sky light up with thousands of people, arriving at their new home.

"This is actually my fourth time here y'know? The first time was champagne. In about a thousand years, the sun of this world will go semi-Nova unexpectedly." River said softly. "The flare will knock out anything in the system that can fly, and the colonists will attempt something crazy in the panic."

"What caused the Nova?" The Doctor asked with interest.

"Don't know. What matters is, they will attempt to hide in a database. They digitize their whole population. They hide the database in the centre of the planet to protect it." She threw back the last of her glass, poured herself another. "It won't be enough."

"How do they plan to de-digitize themselves?" The Doctor asked, intensely curious now.

"They didn't have a clue. Time was against them." She explained.

The Doctor was silent a long moment. "Let's do dairies." The Doctor pulled out his journal, and River pulled out hers.

The Doctor stared at her as she flipped through pages. "I've got pockets that are bigger on the inside. You're in a bathing suit. Where exactly were you hiding that book?"

River just smiled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

She settled on a page after a little back and forth, and The Doctor took a note of it. She was about halfway through their story...

* * *

Rory hadn't been a nurse in three lifetimes, but after settling in to life on earth again, Amy had abandoned her career as a kiss-o-gram, and taken up some work modelling, and Rory went back to the hospital. His experiences had changed his whole outlook on most everything, and he quickly changed to a teaching position in the hospital, training new recruits.

He was their trainer, so when they had practical questions, they all came to him, and he always had an answer for them. The newest of them were so nervous, convinced that a typo would kill a patient. He did his best to put them at ease.

So when a new intern came running up to him in a panic over a screw-up as simple as taking a pulse, Rory took it in stride.

"Why would his heartrate be 400 beats a minute?" She demanded.

"It wouldn't." Rory said soothingly. "Now come on, let's go check this."

When he saw The Doctor in the hospital bed, with a knowing smile on his face, Rory felt his own heartrate hit that mark. He made a show of taking the pulse again. The readout said 400 bpm. "Must be a screw-up with the machine." He said simply. "Go get a proper stethoscope, and I'll show you how to actually do it."

"Yessir."

Once they were alone, Rory spun on his son-in-law. "Your twin hearts just scared one of my students out of a years' growth." He said shortly. "Are we about to be invaded by aliens?"

"Nope."

"Amy's visiting her mother."

"I know. I went to the house first."

"So what brings you here?"

"Can't I just catch up with my favorite Roman?"

"You could, but I'm certain you didn't." Rory said. "You're here for a reason, and I know it wasn't a check-up, so let's have it."

"I need your help with something." The Doctor said. "I need you to come with me for a mission. We have to retrieve something, but for reasons that you don't know, I can't do it personally. Timey-Wimey reasons say so. I need someone I can trust, someone who knows all the things I can do, and can appreciate the stakes... and most important, someone who won't ask why, or tell about it later. That's you." He spread his hands wide. "Are you in?"

"I can't ask why?" Rory repeated.

"Or tell Amy."

"Amy finds out you were back, and she'll kill me for not telling her."

"Then it would be a good idea if Amy didn't find out. You'll be back before anyone knows you're gone."

"I've heard that from you before."

The Doctor felt the barbs hit him, and said nothing.

Finally, Rory spoke again. "When the Pandorica opened, I was suddenly back into existence. When the trap was sprung, I was holding Amy's body... And then you just appeared and gave me instructions. I could barely follow the words, let alone understand how you were there. Running with a time traveler is impossible to figure out from minute to minute, but I learned to roll with the punches... because following your instructions that day brought me back my wife."

"And the universe." The Doctor put in helpfully.

Rory nodded absently. "Yeah, that too."

The Doctor took stock of the Roman for a moment. A man who didn't care at all about the universe when compared to A Woman. Exactly what he needed right now. "Let's boogie! Or Waltz. Waltzes are good."

"Where are we going?"

"The Library."

"Huh. Okay, well I have a book to return so, let me just..."

The Doctor was already running.

* * *

"So, for reasons you don't need to know, we'll be coming in cloaked..."

The TARDIS jarred to a halt, and Rory quickly pulled a lever. The last time they had to land somewhere invisibly, River had done the same thing.

The Doctor looked around the console. "Did you just do something?"

Rory spread his hands innocently. "Exactly what would I do?"

"Fair point." The Doctor ducked back the other way. "This part is tricky, I need to fix an exact location in space time, accurate to the inch and the second. What really hurts is that you're too thick to realize how incredible brilliant I'm being to pull that off. Suffice to say, it's the sort of thing that I consider challenging."

The TARDIS lurched dramatically, and Rory clung to the console, his feet leaving the floor for a second.

"I... meant to do that." The Doctor added once they'd settled. "Now, hang on a second, I have to just..." The Doctor fiddled for a moment. "There."

The screens lit up and showed the world outside the TARDIS.

"Who's that?" Rory asked automatically.

The Doctor didn't answer. He almost never did this, go back to watch one of his own regenerations at work. Not that he knew of anyway. He supposed if anyone could be hidden from his younger selves, it was his older selves.

Ten was leading Donna Noble out of the Library, back toward the TARDIS, leaving River's Journal behind. The Doctor felt a pang. Ten was so cold to her. And why wouldn't he be? He was a cold person.

Still, he saw the exact moment of realization on Ten's face. He turned and bolted back to the Alcove, grabbing the sonic screwdriver off the book.

Inside the TARDIS, invisible, even to them, Rory watched the screen in open confusion. "Who is that?"

Now closer, the TARDIS picked up the sound of the world outside. "Oh yes. I'M VERY GOOD!" Ten roared at Donna.

"What? What have you done?"

"Saved her!" Ten shouted, and took off running.

There were screens enough in the Control Room, that the TARDIS could follow both Ten and Donna at the same time. The former Doctor was now out of sight, but the TARDIS could see all of Time and Space. Rory followed the action on one screen, The Doctor stared at Donna. The woman slowly made her way toward the TARDIS, toward her version of it, glancing back at River's Journal, over and over, tempted...

_Donna Noble._ The Doctor thought thickly. _The most important, most special woman in the whole of creation..._

Donna was unaware of the destiny unfolding around her, and wandered back to the Blue Box that brought her, letting herself in. The instant the doors shut behind her, shadows gathered tightly around the front door. _Vashta Narada, making one last grab for the Time Lord? _

"Stay with me! You can do it! Just stay with me! You and me!" Ten raged from the other screen, and The Doctor joined Rory to look. Ten had wrath that always made him so strong inside. "ONE LAST RUN!"

Ten took the tables at a leap, cleared the shelves instantly...

The Doctor had seen it before, in fact he'd done it before, but he still urged them on. _Come on, one last run, come on!_

"Doctor, who is that?" Rory pressed him, watching the screen anxiously.

They were quickly reaching the point where River's name would be spoken aloud, and that would lead to questions. He turned the screens off immediately.

"Rory, we have to time this right. This whole planet is a library, the one thing they know how to do is sort and organize. The place is maintained by drones, so there'll only be a few minutes before that Book is collected and tossed. We have to go now." The Doctor said. "But I can't go in there myself. I can't be seen. Long story. Universe goes all kablooey kinda thing, but I need that book."

"River's journal?" Rory said. "You're _not_ reading my daughter's diary."

"It's important."

"Yeah, yeah I'm sure it is."

"If you do it, I'll give you a peek."

"Are you kidding? Amy would kill me!"

* * *

Rory slipped out, made his way over to the alcove that looked over the great immense library, and picked up the book. He sent a glance over his shoulder, and saw the hard man in the blue suit slip around the corner. The woman with the long brown hair was nowhere to be seen. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help himself. He set the book down and followed.

The hard man in the long trenchcoat went through a few hallways, with Rory careful not to make any noise. He seemed lost in thought.

When he came into a room with the TARDIS sitting in a shadowy corner, Rory froze. He didn't know why the Doctor would bring the TARDIS there or make it visible, but he knew there was only one of them in the universe.

Wasn't there?

The hard man snapped his fingers, and the doors of the TARDIS opened for him, bathing him in light. Rory squinted and saw the woman with the long brown hair waiting for him within. He entered the TARDIS, snapped his fingers again, and the doors closed. A moment later the familiar roar of the engines came, and Rory felt a chill, wondering if he was now marooned on this planet sized Library.

After a moment, he returned to the alcove that overlooked a canyon of bookshelves, and picked up River's Journal. Rory turned to try and find the invisible TARDIS, when a hand clapped over his wrist, and he started.

A young man with a blonde ponytail gave him a mad grin. "Sorry, this is getting confusing now, sorry. But you need this one." And with that, the bizarre man took the blue book out of his hand, and replaced it with another, seemingly a little more frayed around the edges. "Get outta here Rory; kablooey, remember?"

Rory grabbed his wrist. "Wait. I need that book."

"No, you need the one I gave you. Trust me."

"Trust you? I don't even know who you are."

Ponytail-man grinned in a strangely familiar way. "I'm The Doctor." He said, and pulled away, running off into the Library as fast as he could.

Rory felt a migraine growing behind his eyes and went with it. It wasn't the first ridiculous mystery he'd had to live with. Wouldn't be the last.

* * *

The Doctor was cursing like a sailor in various languages that Rory couldn't begin to guess at when he finally found a way back into the invisible TARDIS again. "Doctor?"

"He wasn't ginger, was he?" The Time Lord said sullenly.

"Um... no. Is that significant?"

"Probably not."

"Weren't you watching?" Rory waved at the screens, still blank.

"Nope. I figured I'd send you and keep my eyes off; so that I'd have one last chance to confirm, or stop myself if I had to." The Doctor sighed, and took the book off him. "By the way Rory, you and Amy left some stuff in your old room last time. You want it back?"

"Uhh... I'll take a look, see if there's anything there we need." Rory said. He had sense enough to know that he was being dismissed. The Doctor let him go... and then hit a lever, sealing all the ways into the Control Room.

And the Doctor did something he vowed never to do. He went looking for Spoilers; in the pages of River Song's Diary.

* * *

_He took me to the The Matrix Launch Party. It's our second time on Zookil, but no champagne this time. A glaring oversight for a black-tie event. The were demonstrating how they could recreate a digital image. They had a room there where you could create a digital image and have it replicated. I thought it seemed silly, but there was this little girl there who lost her puppy in an accident, and she brought a vid-pic of it. Right there in front of the whole place, they fed the scan in, and replicated. The girl was overjoyed. Her puppy was back from the dead. Given how our adventures usually go, I was expecting it to morph into some giant monster and eat the poor girl. I guess I'm getting jaded, because it seemed to work out fine. _

_After that, they talked about how they were going to rebuild a whole digital civilization. Personally, I think that's cheating, but I'd never tell him so._

_I was a little disappointed at first, expecting either a romantic outing or a insane adventure. It seemed positively mundane; but he made up for it..._

* * *

"Bingo!" The Doctor hissed to himself. "Ooh, not bingo. Bad doggie. Bad choice of words." He went to the console and started tapping. "Now, Zookil... What do I know about Zookil? A colony world, but a very big one. Practically a homeworld. Why would these people need to make a production about replicating a digital civilization? They wouldn't. They created that process specifically for this... The Matrix Company isn't based out of Zookil... So where would they get a digital civilization to reintegrate?" He smacked his forehead. That's my job; duh! Ohh, not Duh. Never saying that again either. He drew the timeline in his head. Okay, so some time before we are on the beach, she went to this party, but she didn't know what it was about, or why it was important. So from her point of view, before the beach, she found out about the destruction of Zookil, but it's confirmed she went back once after that before the beach... Which would put it about...

He tapped at the console and brought up an image of Zookil, then of the star it orbited. He tapped at the controls, and the screen showed a simulation of a massive solar explosion, a sun blowing up and a wave of destruction flashing over the planet Zookil.

"Yep. That''s do it. The Matrix Party wasn't launching a new product, it was celebrating an Ark coming home..." The Doctor said aloud solemnly, and turned away from the console, back to the flight controls...

...and found Rory hadn't gone anywhere. He was sitting on the handrail, with River's Diary in his hand, open to the page the Doctor had left it at. He looked at the diary, then back to the screen running the simulation. He said nothing for a long time.

"How'd you get back in here without me noticing?" The Doctor demanded.

"Amy taught me how."

"Where did Amy learn how to sneak in here?"

"River taught her." Rory said promptly, looking back at the screen. "Doctor. Are you preparing to blow up a solar system full of people, just to watch how they hide in a computer?" He said seriously.

Beat.

"Yes. Except no." The Doctor said simply. "And five centuries later, they will be restored to the physical world. I need to learn how they do that."

"Tell me that you have a good reason, other than keeping this date with River." Rory tapped the aged pages in front of him.

"They'll survive." The Doctor said harshly. "They'll be out of time, they'll start from scratch, they'll lose maybe fifteen percent of the population, twenty max; but they'll survive."

"Doctor, I will have to stop you."

Pause. The Doctor's shoulder's straightened suddenly and he somehow grew a foot taller. Rory swallowed even before the Time Lord turned around and met his gaze. "Will you?" The Doctor said calmly. Very calmly. Scary calmly. "Rory the Roman. Not only can you not stop me, but if you wanted to try, you're too late. I sent about a billion worlds to their deaths in my career. Fifteen percent of one world is nothing."

"That was War. Remember who you're talking to, I've seen what you fight. Those were all sacrifices, not... What are you fighting now?"

Beat.

"Failure." The Doctor said simply.

Rory shook his head. "I don't know a lot about anything, but I know that fifteen to twenty percent of a planet is... a lot of people. Innocent people. Families. Children."

"Everyone dies Rory."

The human almost punched him across the nose again. "I know that. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that everyone dies. And nobody knows that better than you. But I really, honestly, truly think that all the stars and all the suns will go dark again, if you ever, for one second, accepted that." Rory let that thought settle in, and exploded. "SO WHAT THE **HELL** IS **HAPPENING** HERE?"

Beat.

"It's River." The Doctor said quietly. "River's in danger. No. Not danger. She died. I couldn't save her. We've all... lost. If you could go back... and undo a loss, what would you do? I'm a Time Traveler. It's all in play for me. I can save people who are a hundred years dead. I can bring River Song back." He paused. "But I have to figure out how."

Rory was silent. He didn't seem shocked. Surprised, but not stunned. It hadn't sunk in. It had barely sunk in that the mysterious River Song was his daughter. Even that was a shock because he never knew Amy was pregnant... "This is why you picked me, isn't it? You could have picked any former companion, anyone you know from your entire life, anyone who understood the universe, anyone from the history books, whether they've been written yet or not. You picked me. And it was because... you couldn't go back to the Library yourself, and you knew somebody else might try and stop you. But River's my daughter so you figured I'd let you burn a planet to save her."

"Yeah." The Doctor said. "Yeah, that's why I picked you."

Silence.

"If she died..." Rory said finally. "She must have been buried somewhere."

"No body."

"There's something. A Marker. She's the Last Time Lord's Wife, there has to be something!" Rory snapped.

* * *

The TARDIS appeared in an ordinary Glasgow Cemetery. Rory was stunned when they stepped out. "I... expected something more... Astronomical."

The Doctor wasn't smiling. "I thought about that but as far as the universe knows, River is the one that killed me... This is Amy's family. River's family. Your own ancestors are spread across half a dozen cities and towns. The ponds have a family place. I put a marker here, written in ancient Celtic. Amy never knew that the woman to the far left of her great aunt is actually her daughter."

Rory sank down to his knees and ran a hand gently over the century old headstone. "God, I came here with Amy half a dozen times, and this was right here the whole time." He looked back at The Doctor. "I came here with Amy a decade before I met you, and this was here. Our daughter, you... the whole time."

"Time Travel. Things like this are all around you and nobody notices them." The Doctor said gently. "They have been all along."

Rory shivered. "I should... flowers or something..." He turned and found a huge bouquet of flowers being held out to him. He had no idea where the The Doctor had conjured them from, and he didn't care. "Do they even come from earth?"

"Nope."

"I remember when my father died, it took months... He just lingered, in pain for months, and then it ended and... nobody said it, but we were relieved when it was finally over." Rory placed the flowers on her grave. "God, what it must be for you. It's not over, even when it's over."

The Time Lord made no comment to that for a long time. "Sometimes it's good. Not being over."

Rory stood up. "Okay. Go do it. Go do whatever voodoo it is you do, and save my daughter. And whatever you do, don't let Amy find out about any of it."

The Doctor gave a single nod. Rory shivered again. This guy never used one word where he could you a hundred. He never sat still for longer than half a millisecond, and he told jokes when people were shooting at him. For this, he was dead quiet.

"Head back to the TARDIS." The Doctor said quietly. "I'll... be along in a few minutes."

Rory left him alone with a marker that had River's name on it, written in an ancient language so nobody would know that it stood for her.

* * *

There was no sign or Rory at the entrance to the cemetery. He was already in the TARDIS. Instead, he found someone else waiting for him.

"I thought you used museums to keep score." River said cheekily "Cemetery's just make you all sad."

"Yeah, they do." The Doctor said carefully. "What are you doing here?"

"You invited me."

"I did?"

"Yup. Told me to bring a press packet for you." She handed him a plasti-steel folder, circa 98th Century. "The Matrix Corporation, making your digital dreams a new reality."

The Doctor read the packet. "Ahh yes. It says here that there was an attack on Zookil five centuries ago. Their sun exploded; and to hide from the inevitable destruction, they digitized their entire species, but they never got the chance to un-digitize themselves. There's a company that has spent forty years looking for a way to fix that, and they're about to announce something."

"Zookil was destroyed?" River seemed stunned. "We were just there, having a bottle of champagne." Realization struck. "We were toasting something, but you didn't tell me what."

"Probably a job well done. So let's go do it."

"But... we were just there, Zookil wasn't destroyed!" River insisted.

"Except it was, five centuries before this packet." The Doctor nodded. "That'll be our next stop. Then back to The Matrix Party, to make sure they got this un-digitizing trick right."

_Destroying a whole civilization just so that they would learn everything that could be learned about digitizing themselves. _The Doctor thought to himself. _Who would do something so despicable?_

_You've done it before._ Ten's voice whispered in his memory.

The Doctor tuned it out. He really didn't need the Time Lord Victorious telling him he was right.

_Rory gave his blessing. Rory would get himself killed to be nice to a scared Ganger. And he'd let the universe burn to save his family._

_This is what you do. You take people and fashion them into your weapons. _Davros hissed from the end of the universe. _I made the Daleks. You made Rory what he is now._

River knew him better than most anyone still alive, and was watching him out of the corner of her eye. "What are you thinking?"

The Doctor didn't let it show on his face. "Why do you call yourself Doctor Song?" He asked. "You're a Professor."

"I took your name after the wedding. Doctor-Song."

"You hyphenate?"

"The alternative was I call myself Doctor River Doctor."

"You didn't have to take my name at all."

"Oh yes I did, just not till a few years after I got my Doctorate." River smiled. "Long story. Spoilers are involved."

The Doctor grinned as she put his arm in hers like something out of a movie.

* * *

_**AN**: Yeah, this was just a random thought that wouldn't go away. Don't expect any future chapters._


End file.
